Today's video is about Todd Baldwin.
He became a millionaire at age 25
and now brings in about six hundred and fifteen thousand per year and owns six properties.
So let's talk about how he earns his money,
how he saves, and where he spends his money.
I am Tiffany Thomas with wealthytiffany.com
and I achieved financial freedom and became a millionaire.
If you're looking to do one or both of those things,
hit that like button and hit the subscribe button
and we're going to dive right in. Todd shares that he grew up
with a single mom who always felt strapped
for cash,
and he knew that he did not want to feel that way.
So he wanted to make millions.
He got his first job shoveling manure
for three dollars an hour, which doesn't sound that fantastic,
but he was so excited about making that money.
At that time it was more money than he had ever seen.
And that was the moment where he said, I've got to make millions of dollars
and he achieved his first million at age 25.
Thanks to smart real estate investing with his wife Angela,
and now he brings in six hundred and fifteen thousand dollars every year.
Thanks to a mix of income from rental properties,
his day job working in commercial insurance sales, and the extra cash
he makes as a secret shopper. And when investing in real estate,
there are quite a few expenses that come along with that.
So his take-home pay is closer to three hundred
and five thousand dollars. And it's great that his wife
Angela also has a 9 to 5 job.
So she is bringing in six figures which they save most of that. And Todd says that they live
pretty comfortably, but he has lofty goals.
He wants to hit his ten million dollar net worth mark by age 35 and that is a really lofty goal.
But I feel like with real estate you can definitely do that.
I personally love investing in real estate.
So listening to his story is pretty cool.
And even though they do live a pretty comfortable lifestyle.
It sounds like they are still pretty frugal.
He says, they don't do most things that millionaires do.
They have roommates. Which I also have roommates.
They drive a 2009 Ford Focus.
And their monthly food bill rarely exceeds 25 dollars.
Thanks to all of the free meals they get as secret shoppers.
That is really impressive that he can keep his food costs so low.
Just that $25. Because,
as I mentioned before, if we can really focus on our three big expenses,
our housing, our transportation, and our food,
then we can drastically reduce our expenses.
Because those are the three most expensive expenses that people
have. So by him keeping his food expense super-low,
I'm sure they are able to save a significant amount of money.
And because they do keep all of their expenses low,
they are able to save about 80% of their income.
Todd says, out of the six hundred and fifteen thousand dollars that he brings in,
he invests almost all of that back into more real estate.
So he actually doesn't see a lot of that money.
Which makes sense why they are
so frugal, if they are investing all that money back into real estate.
They would have to keep their normal expenses very,
very low. That is pretty impressive where they have such a high
income. And he shares a monthly breakdown on where his money is coming from.
So Todd's average monthly income is just over 51,000
and about 12,000 is from his nine to five job
and then about four hundred
and fifteen dollars is secret shopping
and then rental income is just over 38,000.
So you can really see the power of investing in real estate
because that is the majority of their income.
So if you are interested in investing in real estate,
definitely check out the real estate investing playlist that I have on my YouTube channel
and I answer a ton of real estate investing questions in those videos.
What exactly is Todd's day job?
Well, after he decided to drop out of college,
he wanted to work in the sales.
So he has a sale's job in the commercial insurance industry
and he shares that his starting salary was about fifty thousand dollars,
but after several high-performing months,
he doubled it to 100,000 dollars within a year.
And today, his salary from his 9 to 5 job is 150,000 dollars
and this is pretty impressive that he was able to increase his income so quickly and so drastically.
So you can see if you are really ambitious and really focused in on your day job,
you can really increase your income. And it sounds like one way
he was able to do that is because he is in a sale's position.
Where, if you are working hard,
you can really increase your income rather than just a
standard job where they give you a flat salary
and you have to ask for a raise.
With sales positions if you are paid on commission then usually the harder
and smarter you work the more money you are able to make. Really think about that
when you are looking at your own job.
Do you like where you are? Do you like your job?
Do you like what you're doing?
Or would you want to be in a sales position where you are able to earn a lot more money?
Alright, let's talk about the rental income that he receives.
So him and his wife own six properties which is impressive
in itself and those are worth over 4 million dollars
and they bring in about four hundred and sixty thousand dollars per year,
but there are expenses with investing in real estate.
So the take-home amount that he has per year from real estate is about
150,000 which is still a significant amount.
A lot of people would love to have 150,000 dollars coming in every year. Him
and his wife bought their first property at age 23.
He says they were actually looking to rent a place in the Seattle area,
but the prices were too high.
So instead they decided to buy their own place and rent out the extra bedrooms.
And how did they end up purchasing that home? Well,
they only put 3.5% down on that property which was about nineteen thousand dollars.
So you don't actually have to have that full 20% down payment
when you are purchasing a property that you are going to live in.
So if you were just thinking, ah! There's no way I can afford that 20% down payment,
you can actually drop that to even 3% with some lenders. So keep that
in mind if you are considering investing in real estate and you can do what they did.
And also what I do, you can get roommates
and have them help you pay that mortgage payment
and then keep a hold of that property and watch that appreciate over the years.
And then they said, nine months later,
is when they purchased their second property and that it just kept snowballing after that.
And now they have a total of six properties.
And their real estate portfolio is valued at about four point four million dollars
and yes, they do have mortgages.
So the mortgage amount is 3.1 million dollars,
but those costs are being covered by the tenants living there. You can really see from their example
how you can build your wealth through real estate investing.
That is how I was able to build the majority of my wealth as well.
And one thing they did that I also do is rent by the room.
You can actually charge more if you are renting out each room individually in the property,
rather than just renting to a family and renting out the entire property.
That's just another thing to consider if you are investing in real estate,
you could try renting by the room. And Todd says,
this does take more upfront work from showing the rooms to potential tenants
and then making sure roommate personalities match
up and making sure all of the rent gets paid on time each month,
but it can be totally worth it. That is what I have found as well.
Yes, it is extra work to rent by the room,
but the way that it works out, if you have one person that moves out of the house,
you don't have the whole house that's empty. You only have one bedroom.
So you're still collecting rent from the other tenants in that property.
And Todd has another ambitious goal. He wants to own six thousand apartments,
by the time he is 60 years old
and he says at an average of fifteen hundred dollars a piece
that would be 9 million dollars a month.
That is a very specific and ambitious goal.
So I really hope he achieves that and I hope he achieves that
even before age 60. He has made a total of thirty thousand dollars from secret shopping
and he says the best part of this is that it is things that his wife and him would normally do
anyway, we're going out to dinner. We're going out to the movies
and now they're just getting paid to do that.
And he says, with secret shopping, things kind of start out small,
you'll just go to fast food restaurants and receive a free meal and maybe a little extra something,
but as you continue to do that and your reputation grows,
then you get to go to more expensive restaurants,
comment below and tell me if you have ever done secret shopping
or if that is something that you are going to look into.
I personally have never done it.
But I did have a co-worker that used to do or maybe he still does,
but he would go all the time, out to lunch and do the secret shopping.
So he wasn't paying for his lunches.
And now let's talk a little bit about where he spends his money.
They're actually saving a significant amount since they save
the entire amount that his wife makes. They have a mortgage of 47 hundred dollars,
which just sounds super high,
but it's really cool because all of their costs are covered by the income
they earn from renting out rooms in the house.
So they make 3,000 per month in rent from the second half of the duplex
and then another fifteen hundred dollars per month from the garage,
which they converted into a studio apartment.
So, while that mortgage payment seems high, they have been really smart about
this because they are renting out rooms in their home.
And then, they also converted the garage into a studio.
So if you are looking to make extra money,
maybe you could consider renting out some rooms in your home.
That's exactly what I do. And what I have done. Another expense that they have is $130
in gym memberships. And if that sounds expensive to you,
I like this quote that he gives. He says it's well worth it because your health is your
wealth. It doesn't make sense to be the richest man in the graveyard.
He brings up a really good point. We want to take care of ourselves.
We want to be healthy, so we can really enjoy our lives.
And that 2009 Ford Focus that they have is completely paid
off and they spend about 80 dollars per month in gas
and he even gets gas free some of the time
because of his secret shopping. And I love that they have built up their
wealth so much, but they still drive their 2009 car.
You don't need a fancy car, but he did say when he turns 30,
he does want to buy a Tesla Roadster.
So, it is pretty cool that he has not bought that
yet, that he has built up his wealth, that he has invested in multiple properties.
And then later, he can buy that car
and the investments that he has made can actually help him pay for that car,
which is a really great mindset to have,
we want to invest in assets first
and things that are going to make us money
and then we can buy things that aren't going to make us money.
But the assets that we have invested in are going to pay for those things.
And like I mentioned before, their food budget is $25 a month because of their secret shopping.
So 90 to 95 percent of their restaurant
budget is covered by mystery shopping.
Every once in a while they will go somewhere a little more
exotic that is not on the secret shopping list.
And another cool thing about the secret shopping program is that they get free
groceries as well. And now let's talk a little bit about his credit card strategy.
Todd has 13 credit cards,
but he does not carry balances on any of them.
He says I use a strategy called credit card churning which is when
you open up a new credit card, take advantage of that new account bonus,
pay it off completely, and then rinse and repeat with the next card.
And this is a great strategy. I have opened up a few new credit cards recently
because they've offered bonuses.
So, if I am already going to be spending that
money, I might as well earn a bonus while spending it.
One of the credit cards that I opened recently was a Venmo credit card.
They were offering a cashback bonus, if you spend a certain amount within
I think the first three months. And I was already going to be spending that money.
So I went ahead and opened that credit cards.
And I also did that when I got my eye surgery,
my PRK eye surgery, which is kind of like Lasik,
but I knew I would be spending about, I think it was four grand.
So I thought I might as well look at some credit cards and find one that has a really high
bonus offer for spending the amount
I was already going to be spending and that's exactly what I did.
And these credit cards a lot of time will have a zero percent interest rate
for the first 12 months.
So you have even longer to pay off that amount without paying any interest.
So we don't want to just be thinking, oh I should just go
and spend a couple thousand dollars to get this two hundred dollar bonus.
No, if we are already going to be spending that money,
then we can sign up for that credit card and get the bonus,
but we don't want to be spending extra money and then of course,
you can earn cash back rewards on these credit cards.
And now, let's talk about how he saves his money.
He sets aside about eighty percent of his income,
which is super high, into savings.
He'll put money aside for future real estate purchases.
He also puts money aside for retirement,
which includes maxing out him and his wife's IRAs and 401Ks.
One thing he brings up is that they put fun things on hold in their 20s,
in order to invest in these real estate properties.
But he says, now they are at a point where they can enjoy life a little bit more.
So it really didn't take that long of a time because he is telling us this at
age 27, so he is still very young.
And if they do have so much money, why don't they just retire?
And they actually said they could retire now,
but an early retirement doesn't really interest them.
They have really lofty goals.
So they are going to continue to work toward those goals. And Todd adds,
he doesn't really know if he is the type of person to retire,
in the traditional sense anyway. And as you can see from Todd's and Angela's example,
if you're willing to put in that extra effort,
when you are young, you can really reap those benefits later on
and it doesn't even have to be that much later on. No matter
what age you are currently start now to invest your money
and best as much as possible as soon as possible.
And one of the reasons they have done this is because they want to start a family soon.
And he says it's nice knowing that we can pay for their college and we can go on family vacations,
but the biggest is being able to be a present father.
There's no need for me to go spend eight hours a day in an office,
if I don't want to. Because we have built the systems,
we built businesses and we have enough passive income.
So if I want to be home with the kids and be there for every ballet recital or little league game,
I can. That was a huge motivation.
That's why I sacrificed so much of my time in my early 20s. And I really love that.
I love that he says if he wants to be there, he can be there because of
the systems that they have set up, of these investments that they have made.
So really take a step back and figure out what are your priorities?
What are the most important things to you?
And are you taking the steps now so that you can really focus on those priorities?
We can definitely follow Todd's and Angela's examples by being frugal and investing early,
taking some risks early on, be willing to be a little bit
uncomfortable to have roommates, to think outside of the box,
and finish your garage into a studio apartment. And then also,
once you are increasing that income to not increase your expenses, to live frugally.
And then also think of different ways that you can make money like that secret shopping idea.
And I'm sure they tracked their expenses along their way,
they knew how much was coming in and how much was going out.
One of the ways I like to do that is using a free app called Personal Capital.
I will leave my referral link below. If that is something that you would like to use,
to help you manage your money better.
And they knew what their financial goals were and they continue to set goals and work
toward them. Comment below and tell me one of your financial goals.
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the side of the screen. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you in the next video.